Although Dee knew that wouldn’t be easy. Not with Blayne there. But they had to move quickly because Blayne and two untrained sub-adults could only do so much.

Ric, who’d still been on the phone when they’d discovered what was going on was already heading over to Llewellyn’s Brooklyn home with Mace, Sissy Mae, Mitch, and Lock. Bobby Ray and Rory were heading over from a job in the Bronx. But Dee had a feeling that none of them would get there any faster than herself. Not the way she was driving. Even the teams converging together from the Group, KZS, and NYPD wouldn’t beat her because she had the boy’s mother sitting next to her. Deadly quiet and ready to kill anyone who tried to harm her child.

Hannah, unable to help herself, smiled at the little boy. He had such an infectious grin that she couldn’t imagine anyone not smiling back at him. And his smile managed to do the impossible. Make her feel relatively comfortable. The last thing she’d wanted to do was leave the safety and quiet of the Group’s head-quarters—especially since she was still recovering from that long weekend with all those people—but Blayne had begged and pleaded with some whining thrown in to really test Hannah’s nerves.

Eventually, Hannah had agreed. So here she was in Brooklyn, in a stranger’s home, with two annoying canines—Blayne and Abby—and the cutest little kid she’d ever seen in her entire life. Then again, if the kid grew up looking anything like his father, then he’d probably end up the cutest adult, too.

Blayne charged down the stairs and stopped. “I can’t find Abby anywhere.” Hannah looked away from the kid and pointed at the dining table. Blayne crouched down and gazed under the table.

“What’s she doing under there?”

“Why does everyone seem to think I can read her mind?”

“Because you’re friends. I can totally read Gwenie’s mind. I know when she’s about to House Cat somebody or when she’s about to go Irish on their ass.”

Nope. Hannah would not be suckered into asking what “House Catting” someone entailed. She honestly didn’t want to know.

“Come here, Abby. Come here, girl.” When Abby refused to come out, Blayne stood. “Dez has to have Milk Bones or something around here.”

“Wait. You’re actually going to try and coax her out from under that table with Milk Bones?”

“You think I should use peanut butter?”

And that’s what Hannah got for being suckered in. Again!

“Or maybe some steak,” Blayne went on. “Dez is living with a lion male so she has to have some meat around here, don’tcha think? And my God what is that noise?”

“Your phone.”

“My phone’s been ringing? Why didn’t you get it?”

“I’m not going in your bag.”

“You couldn’t call me and tell me that my phone was ringing?”

“How’s that my job?”

“How can I help you, Hannah, if you won’t help me?”

“Help you by fetching your phone? I’m only half dog, Blayne.”

“I didn’t mean . . .” Blayne frowned, thinking. “Wait a minute. I’m half dog!” Blayne stomped her foot. “It was easier talking to you when you didn’t respond.” She picked up her backpack from the floor and placed it on a chair. She began digging through it while demanding to know “And what is that noise?”

“The house phone.”

Her head snapped up. “You didn’t answer the house phone?”

Hannah shrugged. “It’s not my house.”

“Goddamnit, Hannah! That’s probably Dez and she’s going to flip the fuck out because I didn’t answer the phone . . . again. And this is what I’m talking about! How can you hope to make any friends if you’re always so bitchy? I mean, maybe if you were feline you could get away with it, but they never take bitchy from canines or bears. Our feet and shoulders are just too big for that. Although not mine. I have cute, dainty feet. And something else,” she went on while digging deep for the stupid phone. Abby pressed up against Hannah’s leg, and that’s when Blayne suddenly stopped talking. Since she never stopped talking of her own volition, Hannah immediately knew something was wrong.

Hannah stood. “What—”

She didn’t get to finish her question, Blayne silencing her with a raised hand. Then she pointed at Marcus.

Hannah was just reaching for him when they kicked in the front door.

“Run, Marcus!” Blayne yelled and the kid took off running, heading for the back of the house, Hannah and Abby right behind him.

It was Abby’s first instinct to run away and never look back. As long as she could remember, she’d always made sure to look out for herself and only herself. But as she watched Hannah—unfriendly, could-care-less-about-anyone Hannah—go after little Marcus like he was her own and Blayne taking the knife she kept on her all the time these days to the first guy who came through the door, cutting his throat, and immediately going to work on the others— many others—Abby knew she couldn’t run for it. She couldn’t leave them.

Instead, she ran after Hannah and Marcus. Hannah swept the boy up into her arms and hard charged for the back door in the kitchen. But before she reached it, they kicked that door in, too, the dogs that Mace and Dez had kindly put in their kennels losing their minds as they tried to get out and protect Marcus, but no one pulled their weapons.